Hastings out of IPL after ankle injury

Kolkata Knight Riders and Australia allrounder John Hastings has been ruled out of the remainder of the Indian Premier League season with an ankle injury.

Hastings suffered the injury during training before Kolkata's clash Mumbai Indians at Eden Gardens last Wednesday.

He had started the tournament in terrific fashion, claiming 2-6 inside three over in the Knight Riders' emphatic nine-wicket opening win over Delhi Daredevils.

The right-armer has flown home and will be desperate to recover in time for Australia's ODI tri-series against the West Indies and South Africa in the Caribbean in June.

Hastings played through pain in Kolkata's six-wicket loss to Mumbai, finishing with 0-31 from four overs.

"He bowled through a fair bit of pain," KKR assistant coach Simon Katich told ESPN.

"He had a fair bit of scans after that, and he has flown back to Australia. It’s a shame to see his campaign end prematurely.

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"He had fitted in really well into the team, and he had performed well in a couple of games.

"Unfortunately he’ll be doing a lot of rehab instead and working towards getting fit for the West Indies tour for Australia."

It's a blow for Hastings, who suffered three shoulder injuries last summer but rebounded to play one-day and T20 cricket for Australia.

Hastings had dislocated his left shoulder three times prior to Christmas, all in a freak training mishaps, but opted not to undergo surgery to continue playing and push on for the World Twenty20 and IPL.

Hastings, who stands at an impressive 195cm, has been colossal in white-ball cricket since returning in the one-day international series against England last September.

A career-best 3-21 in the deciding match at Old Trafford proved his class at international level, but he was initially overlooked for the Victoria Bitter ODI series against India last summer.

The 30-year-old earned a call-up – initially just for one match – when the national selectors decided to rest fellow allrounder Mitchell Marsh, and the Victorian hasn't looked back.

Hastings played the remaining four matches of the series, claimed four wickets at the MCG – a new personal-best – and was frugal in a run-heavy series.

He backed it up with a superb display in New Zealand, bowling tight and scoring a vital 48no in concert with Marsh to guide Australia home in Wellington.

Driving Hastings is a disappointing first crack at international cricket, which ended in a sole Test match against the Proteas in December 2012.

"I just want to try and play at the top level for as long as I can," Hastings told cricket.com.au in March. 

"I don’t think I was as good as I could have been when I got an opportunity earlier. 

"Back then I could have made that spot mine for four or five years but I didn’t take that opportunity. 

"So now I’m really focused on trying to stay in there and keep bowling well. 

There's no shortage of limited-overs cricket in 2016, and Hastings wants to be a part of all of it despite some big names set to return from injury.

"Hopefully I can make that West Indies tour (in June), I’d love to be on that," he said. 

"There’s a lot of one-day cricket coming up this year, so if I can try and stay fit and have my breaks where I can. 

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"But who knows. Hopefully I can just keep doing what I’m doing and keep delivering and hopefully I can have a spot for a little while."

While Starc, Cummins and Pattinson can all hit 150kph, Hastings' bowling speed as increased from mid-130kph to be clocked in the high-140kph zone in the South Africa.

Hastings says the jump in velocity could be the result of consistent cricket over the past two seasons, for Victoria, the Melbourne Stars and English county club Durham. 

Kolkata have not yet named a replacement for the Victorian.